Saturday, December 20, 2008

Coal is here!

It was so awesome! I pulled up to the house with all the kids in the car, and informed them that due to their behavior, they were all getting coal for Christmas. Right on cue, Scott let puppy 'Coal' out of the house, and I said: "See? There's your Coal!" The kids were floored! Then they all started yelling! They are so happy! They have all been really good about helping. The puppy is really, really good. He is happy in his crate, and doesn't cry. He is happy with his collar and leash. It will take some time, but we will work on house-breaking. He shouldn't be too hard to train--labs are smart doggies.

Well, more later--puppy duty calls and the kids are having a lot of fun with the remote control train.

More later!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

!!!!!!!

HE IS SOOOOO CUTE!!!!!!!!! I should have taken a picture of him with my phone, but I was too enamored to think about it at the time.

We are going to pick him up Friday or Saturday.... this seemed the best way to maximize time to get used to each other, time that Dan and Susie will get to enjoy him and having him feel settled enough to travel with us after the New Year.

I CANT WAIT!!!!!!!! The kids are going to be so excited!

We got to meet the mommy and daddy dog--they were the nicest, best behaved dogs. The owner was very pleasant and very friendly. He was very helpful telling us about the dogs, and what to expect as they grow. It seemed like he had taken great care of them and had invested a lot of time and energy into them. He is going to be a BIG dog! You can tell looking at his head and paws (and dad--oh my!). But so gentle and pleasant. No yipping, nipping or tearing around. He was playful, but not obnoxious. He wasn't afraid of us, and came right over to play, and after awhile climbed right into my lap and snuggled with me.

While we were talking the puppy wandered over to the daddy dog and the daddy dog started to use his tail to play with the puppy. It was so cute to watch. The dad switched his tail back and forth to tease the puppy. The look of glee on the dad's face was hilarious.

Now.... for a name...... lol....

Any ideas? :)

The first snow arrives!

Well, it is about time. You in NY have had all kinds of snow, and we have only had rain, rain, rain. Last night we received about 3 inches, maybe only 2.5, it is hard to tell from where I am sitting. It isn't very pretty: it is wet, slushy and icy, but it is SNOW.

The kids just left for school after a 90 minute delay, I am so relieved they had school as you will see later in this note WHY. There are some things you just can't pull over on a 13 year old without being able to stuff them away at school whilst you PLOT.

The phone rang three times this morning, but I am glad that it was just weather alerts and not the sub lady calling. I hate saying "no" to her, but I don't relish teaching when I am feeling sick, either. I am battling a sinus thing. (yuck!) Illness is our other theme for the day, as is a "Thank God for the Internet" experience, which I will get to in a minute.

Illness is upon us--for me, a mild, but drawn out whole body experience that began with a stomach thing this past weekend and is ending (hopefully) with the sinus thing. I had to go get Aidan from school yesterday because she had the stomach thing. Alannah sounds like she should be singing the double bass line in a Barbershop Quartet with a deep chest thing. Scott is coughing and sneezing. We are quite the bunch! Susie, she tells me, went to the Dr. Monday and she has bronchitis. It may be that the White Christmas we have will be because the floor is strewn with 8 boxes of tissue!

But, like I said, all our things are mostly mild, so we are all functioning. Being home for a couple days is working wonders on my getting stuff done for the holidays. My sewing machine has been on fire, and all the Christmas cards are about ready to mail. Scott customized an ice storm photo to include, so I will pick them up at CVS today along with stamps. Alannah helped me address the envelopes, and she also helped with the sewing: pulling basting, turning casing and cutting threads.

Hopefully later today the germs will dissipate and we will brave doing some baking for teacher gifts. I found the cutest treat bags to fill with the M&M snack mix that everyone seems to like. I was thinking I would like to make caramel corn too.... we shall see!

At lunchtime (I am soooo excited!!!!!) Scott and I are going down to Torrington to see a (shhhh!) p-u-p-p-y that is for sale there. It is a 10 week old black lab. The owner is willing to hold the puppies until Christmas Eve--this little guy has a brother and sister who are waiting to surprise two other families. I hope that it works out, Dan (ok, and mommy) needs a puppy! The neighbors here got a puppy this Summer and it was so much fun to watch Dan playing with her. They were two peas in a pod.

Oh! Can't forget the Internet story! I was checking all my online banking accounts, and I realized that my Owego account was overdrawn by $300. Now.... I am not the most diligent detailist when it comes to banking, but I am pretty good about not over-drawing my checking accounts--especially not by $300!!!!! I went back through the transactions and realized that my NYSEG payment on the Church St. house was over charged by $400!!!!!! That is a BIG mistake!!! Lisa at Chemung Canal was very sorry and will take care of it and then-some, I am sure.

That woke me up, as I am sure it would anyone!!!!! But thank goodness for the Internet--in the "old days", this problem would have taken a long time to deal with. This just takes them a few clicks and phone calls to rectify as everything is recorded electronically.

Merry Christmas to ME!!!!

Ok--I need to get myself in gear--lots of stuff to do!!!!
(cough, hack, groan, moan, sneeze)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

ho! ho! ho!

The weather is weathering..... it was warm (no kidding--it was 60 degrees at 6am this morning!!!!!!!!) and drizzly all day today, and just in the last hour it has been getting colder.... and colder.... and COLDER. (last i checked it was about 40, and dropping fast) It is supposed to pour buckets with thunder, lightening and eventually turning into ice and snow over the next two days. (eeeewwwwwwwww) Why can't it just SNOW? A nice, fluffy Nor'Easter?



The kids were all speculating whether we would lose a day of school this week.... sounds good to me! :)



I did get a couple of days off this week and was able to take a breath and get some Christmas stuff done. The house is looking festive! I feel better having a few things stashed away now, with a better picture of what we are going to gift everyone this year.



Susie and Dan are coming this Friday! I hope the weather stays ok so I can get there ok. Then after that, they will be here for Christmas from the 19th until the 30th. (yay!!!!!!!!)

The girls and I went to the Christmas concert at the high school last night. It was very nice. The girls were impressed that a lot of the kids said hi to me. We were downtown shopping and a few kids said hi to me there, too! I always was impressed when I went places with mom and everyone said "Mrs. Gray!" "Mrs. Gray!"

Speaking of which, when I called Dan and Susie tonight, Dan sung jingle bells to me, sweet as can be. He doesn't always talk to me--it must be hard for a 4 year old to talk on the phone about anything in particular. He really loves music, and to sing, though, so it doesn't take much encouragement to get him to do that, at least.

Before I forget, a funny story:

I was dying laughing last night--at the concert, the band director and choir director had gone all out to be sophisticated and politically correct. The program was tasteful, ambitious. They had various students explain all of the pieces of music to the audience.

Winsted being the blue collar haven that it is, was tolerant, at best. It was obvious that most of the audience was not really paying attention to the explanations--they were all holding out for the CHRISTMAS carol sing-along at the end.

Anyways, one of the pieces played by both the choir and the band was Coventry Carol. The students explained that this carol was written about the infantacide Herod ordered in anticipation of Jesus' birth. The carol is supposed to be the mothers crying for their sons' short, doomed lives. It is pretty, but sad and tragic.

On the way out, I overheard a mother and daughter talking. The daughter asked the mother what her favorite piece of music was. The mother said that she loved the Coventry Carol, in spite of what "that teacher" said. "It's pretty!" she insisted. Then she asked her daughter: "What WAS he talking about, that it was about babies being killed?" The daughter tried to explain, again, the story of Herod and the babies. "Why would he do that?" the mother continued. The daughter told her mother Herod was actually trying to kill Jesus. "What?" the mother was confused. "Where did the teacher get this story?" The girl said, "The bible, I guess." The mother started laughing hysterically--"The bible? (hahahahahahaha) I never heard any such thing being in the bible!!!" Well, then they both started laughing, and the both decided that the teacher was "nice" but a bit off his rocker.

Hee hee!

Monday, December 8, 2008

:)

Hi everyone! It was a busy cccooooolllllllddddddd day here in Winsted. I think it was around 9 degrees this morning with a wind chill factor of -15. My car felt it--it coughed and sputtered trying to start.

Today I was teaching PE/health. It was fun for me, seeing that subject puts me much more into my "element" than algebra. I taught sleep deprivation, mental illnesses, badminton (ok, so that one was a stretch) and food labels to freshmen, juniors and seniors.

A lot of the kids I have had already, and they greeted me enthusiastically. As I walked down the hall many of them called out to see who I was in for today. There were shouts for kids that would be in my class, and groans for those who wouldn't be. A few of them helped me find my room, and went to get someone to unlock it for me. The kids that haven't had me were quickly informed that Miss Hall is a cool sub..... (help me out here, is that "good"? or.....?) Hahahahaha! I teased them back--were they happy they had a sub, or were they happy that I was their sub? There were a few guilty looks and giggles, but they all assured me that it was ME. (wink!)

Later that morning the teacher I subbed for on Friday tracked me down all the way across the school to thank me (profusely!) for doing such a great job for him. Not only that, he passed along the compliment (glowing!) to the sub-lady in the main office, the principal and the superintendent and all three made a point to mention the compliment to me throughout the day.

I love compliments, don't we all? But I know all too well that there will be at least one day that things won't go so well and I'll get a bad report--good thing the good ones came first this time!!!!! :) So much better to glide (safely) along in anonymous mediocrity? It felt really good, though. I don't think grown ups get enough compliments.

Everyone seems amazed that I do so well with what they consider the "bad" kids. First of all, no kids are "bad". Second of all, no kids could possibly be as "bad" as the ones I had in the alternative high school in Binghamton...... and they weren't THAT bad-even the ones who had parole officers! Besides, what is more important? Behavior, or learning? Do you have to be perfectly behaved, as in silent and still, to learn well? I believe that I am more effective when I let kids be kids, with certain expectations about general respect and behavior. Teenagers need some space, and some air. If I can be realistic, give them a little, they will soon give me 1000%.

In other news, we got the Christmas decorations out today and began decorating a bit. Alannah starts Art Club tomorrow. The high school winter concert is tomorrow night, and we will try to go. We are all excited to have Susie and Dan this weekend!

btw.... gas is down to $1.65....... the Steelers won..... life is good! :)

p.s. give a grown up a compliment tomorrow!!!!!!!

Friday, December 5, 2008

I am so TIRED!!!!

But I am so happy!!! :)

I can't remember the last time I worked (almost) a whole week outside of the home. Not that housework is less work than work outside the house, but when I work at home, I can take a NAP!!!!! (hahahahaha)

So far so good with the subbing, by-the-way. The charm of Miss Hall hasn't worn off yet. In fact, one boy let me know, in confidence, that I was doing a really good job. That totally made my day.

The weather here in Winsted is not very December like. It is difficult to get in the Christmas mood when the weather swings from deep-February frigid to balmy April. The stores here are just starting to get decorated for the holidays. I think one store keeper said that their "big" weekend was next weekend, and that everything should be set for then. It is kind of nice seeing that the rest of the world has been going Christmas full swing since Halloween.

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent. This is the season of the church where we are supposed to contemplate what life was like before Jesus. We wait, patiently, and expectantly for his arrival at Christmas. At home, we have a wreath of candles that we light. The girls have special devotionals they do each day. Every Sunday my mom has a small gift for us to open. It is fun, but hard to see that bag of gifts every day waiting until each week is over to open another one!

I like what our church here in Winsted is doing. The church had a few simple decorations: Two long, plain pieces of cloth hanging up front and twenty plain green wreaths hanging around the church. The minister asked that each week we bring a decoration or two to fill up the wreaths. That way we are taking our time thoughtfully preparing. By Christmas time the church will be fully decorated by a diverse number of decorations. I think that is a great idea.

When we get back from the game this weekend the girls and I will start getting all the Christmas stuff out of the attic. They need to update Sponge Bob for Christmas--he has a nice big Santa Hat!

I have a bunch of new pictures from Thanksgiving.... I will try and get them up there soon.

Go Pitt!!!!!!!!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Yes, I am still here!

Hi everyone! We had so much fun on Thanksgiving. What a great time! Playing hostess for the first time was GREAT, and very rewarding. Mom and Andrea were very gracious to not miss doing all the work for the first time. We all helped each other and everything turned out WONDERFUL.

It was so much fun having Susie and Dan here all week. They were so happy here with their sisters. I can't begin to tell you all the things we did, and we basically didn't do anything special at all--just hung out as a family. It went too fast.

I have been called in to sub just about every day this week and next. I am so tired! But it is fun. The kids are great. The school is so small! Only 400 kids 9-12. I basically know all the 9th graders already since that is where I have been subbing the most. I have been in history, english, math and ceramics. Next week I get to try out PE and another English class.

I guess I am doing ok--the kids seem happy, and they do the work, more or less. The principal came in to say hello to me the other day. About halfway through the conversation I realized he was interviewing me, and I was sort of mindlessly shooting the breeze. Later I kind of freaked out about that but figured I had more or less been intelligent and thoughtful in my answers.

Next week Aidan is going to try out for cheerleading. Alannah came home very excited about playing volleyball in gym--I think she really liked it, and was suprirsed she liked it. The kids in Winsted are very into sports and extracurricular activities. The girls' friends are inspiring them!

This weekend Scott and I have a very rare date day. We have tickets to the Pitt/UCONN game. Dad is meeting us at Andrea's in Albany Saturday morning and is going to spend the day taking the girls around Albany and to Howe's caverns. We will pick the girls up and Andrea's on Sunday. I can't remember the last time we had a free night without kids!

Christmas is hurtling toward us now. It is hard to believe that 2008 is almost over.

More later......